Send me email updates about messages I've received on the site and the latest news from The CafeMom Team.
By signing up, you certify that you are female and accept the Terms of Service and have read the
Privacy Policy.

High School Bans Makeup for a Day So Our Daughters Can See How Beautiful They Are - Would you be up for a No Makeup Day?

Looking for a new holiday to celebrate? How about No Makeup Day? Yup, it's real. Even better, it was dreamed up by a bunch of teenage girls and celebrated at their high school last week.

You couldn't get me to go back to high school if you paid me a large
sum of money and threw a few chocolate bars in to sweeten the pot. But
something tells me I would have been pretty comfortable at New London High School. At least for a day.

The girls who created No Makeup Day and convinced their administrators to go through with it say it was a response to the pressure put on teenagers
-- especially teen girls -- to be "perfect." They were hoping a day
with no makeup would help remind their classmates that beauty is skin
deep.

I'd like to wrap each of those girls in a big, fat hug.

I look at some of the teen girls walking around the mall, and I shudder. They look like they're preparing for a Vogue
magazine shoot instead of shopping for a new pair of Uggs. The question
is why they feel that much makeup and those kind of clothes are
necessary. Is it society's pressure or their parents' failure to fight
said pressure?

My daughter is only 7 and far too young for real makeup. But already I'm struggling with how to explain the concept of beauty to her without making her feel pressured to reach some impossible goal.

I look at her, and I see a beautiful girl (doesn't every mother?). But I know I will one day have to face her desire to use makeup,
to dress fashionably (forget one day, we're already there!). The
challenge isn't in whether or not to allow her to do so but in
explaining that clothes and makeup are there to enhance beauty that already exists, not to "make" one beautiful.

I'm not saying No Makeup Day should be every day, although I'd like
to see an event like this in every school in America at least once a
year. Makeup and beautiful clothes aren't inherently bad, but our girls
need to know how to use them appropriately in their lives.

Do you struggle with this with your daughter? Would you be up for a No Makeup Day?

I would be able to go no make up I only wear it on holidays or special ocasions. That being said my teen LOVES her make-up I would love for the school to do something like this not every mom is like me and tells thier daughters how great they are w/o that crap

My daughter and stepdaughters were big into hair and makeup and would have had a problem with it.

When I was in school I wouldn't have had a problem with it because I didn't wear makeup and in the morning I washed my hair put on a ball cap and flipped my pony tail through the back of it. I have always been me and never tried to be something I am not so makeup is only worn every now and then for a special occasion.

My daughter only wore mascara and a little liner for school.Well a little neutral gloss or Burts Bees gloss.It wouldn't bother her to go without make up.Most of her friends are like her.We taught her make up is just for enhancement not to change looks.

Send me email updates about messages I've received on the site and the latest news from The CafeMom Team.
By signing up, you certify that you are female and accept the Terms of Service and have read the
Privacy Policy.